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Navy knew half these demons wouldn’t make it in a different village. He watched as an imp with a mop of blonde hair, that had somehow grew itself into the worst haircut he had ever seen, with the most punchable butt chin in the world, complained at his feet.

The imp even childishly scuffed his feet across the ground in a tantrum.

Now, Nike had insanely fair.

Incredibly fair.

When Nike said, “Be lucky you didn’t get someone else proctoring,” he meant it.

As the boy whined, Navy thanked the lords above that he wasn’t the proctor. He would’ve beat the legs off this child. The boy complained about how he didn’t have enough people, and how his team wasn’t that good at magic.

Yada Yada Yada.

Yak Yak Yak.

It was ceaseless.

These kids didn’t know how good they had it. But… the kid’s first question did have… a slight bit of weight. How did you get a team of four when the number of people in The Cradle was 20?

That was when the shadow boy arrived.

Yawning, the boy walked out of the forest. Alive. Completely fine. Nonplussed. Completely unbothered by the thought of monsters gobbling him up in the woods.

The boy was either brave, or insanely stupid.

Both?

Maybe.

Navy sucked his teeth. Shadow was such a good affinity. Much better than “Mana.”

Nike chewed the boy out and then sent him over to the other team. The imps swore under their breaths and got upset when they saw the boy showed up. Navy smirked in satisfaction as he realized.

They planned to get through the trial for free with the help of the shadow kid’s absence, because, “It was not Fawirrr…” Idiots. Their flimsy excuse was smashed to pieces and now these children had to perform.

That was their fault for not banking on their plan failing. Nike handed a spear to the blond haired greenhorn.

The child stepped up slowly.

Nike watched the boys destroyed one by one. Some did less than well at the boulder, but they were the smart ones.

The others, who chose to try and be the next Misty, got their asses handed to them. Nike even had to rush in before one of the children got skewered by the bad end of a horn.

The blond haired imp was the only monster that had defeated their target, using sloppy earth magic to slowly crumble the solid dirt to pieces.

Flame was smart, but Navy was lucky. He would have easily been in a similar situation if he hadn’t planned, and if his allies were even a little less talented. When he had realized he was among the "lessers" he assumed he would be among a bunch of liabilities.

A boy who couldn’t create fire. A girl who could only blast herself with wind, and a dud.

But as they ran through the trial, each member had slowly impressed him in different ways. Even Torrent, who had yet to be successful, still did a number on a ton of the cradle.

He would pitch some ideas to help her use that in a way that was less… damaging to herself and her tribe. His team honestly had insane synergy potential.

Navy was invested.

His first plan was to get the hell out of here the first chance he got, especially after hearing that pretty boy’s speech about the "lessers." What an idiot.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

But his words would make a great drive for his team as they grew.

This would be an interesting team to raise.

It was the shadow boy’s turn.

He lazily pointed to a pig who got placed twenty five paces away. The pig looked at the shadow boy, who lazily yawned and even looked away in disinterest. The one loved by shadow didn’t even pick up his weapon.

He walked toward the woods like that was more interesting than the threat of death.

This insulted the beast greatly. He charged the boy who had slumped his shoulders as he walked away from the challenge.

Nike shouted, “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!”

This man’s asking the real questions.

The shadow boy swung his shining claws low. Light gleaming off his bio-implements.

The pig chased him into the shrubbery and suddenly, both of them were gone. Nike immediately was about to rush into the woods before Flame, surprisingly, said something Navy agreed on.

“If he wants to die, let him. He came and showed up late and disrespected the test. Screw that, if he's going to disrespect you, disrespect him with your lack of help."

Flame folded his arms and stared deep into the woods. And slowly, in agreement, Nike stopped and just looked into the black as well.

All that was heard was the pig’s squeals as he chased the boy. Then, suddenly the pig emitted a sharp, high-pitched squeal as the slashes rang out with crystal clarity. Squeals turned into screeches.

Everyone winced as they heard the creature’s screams of pain.

Schlick. Schlick. Schlick.

The sounds of meat being ripped and torn. The pig’s desperate cries were only enhanced as they heard nothing from the boy.

The darkness of the woods swirled and grew… richer, like milk chocolate turning into dark chocolate. Slowly, but surely, the unnaturally liquid airborne blackness deepened, rivaling the most ebony of squid inks and the most opaque of gasses.

The leaves and wood started to drip with black ichor. The cries suddenly stopped. Everyone heard the sound of the dragging of mass.

The boy loomed out of the woods, covered in ink that evaporated into black smoke, his body covered head-to-toe in dark boar blood.

He limped with that dead look in his eye as he dragged the boar by its hoof. The sound of its dragging body keeping everyone's eyes and ears stuck on him.

Its body was desecrated.

Eyes were pulled and clawed out of its sockets. Long claws marks raked across its back, stomach, butt and face. Its exposed entrails fell out and dragged behind the body as the boy carried it.

Navy wanted to throw up.

There was no respect being given to the creature that had given up its life for this contest. Just the movements of a man who truly did not care.

The blond haired kid ran up to him and started yelling. Yelling about how he was supposed to use a ranged weapon. That he’d failed the test and ruined the whole thing.

Again, the line between bravery and stupidity was thin today.

While the boy’s treatment of the body gave Navy the shivers, one thing was clear. The boy got results. He had a unique ability that he knew how to use.

Navy and Flame’s thoughts became one as they stared at the boy. Seeing the killing potential and coldness of this individual.

‘I want him.’

Nike spoke up, “The rules I told Smokey was that as long as he started charging you could use any method you wanted to kill it,” Nike looked over to the body and grimaced slightly, the unsightliness even making the old man uncomfortable.

Navy watched as especially the way the eyes hung out and laid made the giant’s nose flared with discomfort. The dead look in the boar's eyes having an effect on him, despite his clear experience with battle.

He didn’t blame Nike.

The entire camp became very uncomfortable as the Shadow boy just sat there with his finger in his ear. His glittering claws slicked with blood. Not showing any kind of reaction.

“In a way, it was kind of clever…” Nike said that, but was clearly inventing compliments so the conversation could end as quickly as possible.

“Can I leave now?” The shadow kid asked.

Nike shook his head. “Wait till the end of the trial, lad, then you can return to sleep.”

Nike treated the boy with a slight respect. Maybe the boy’s dark skin and talent with darkness was important in this culture?

Navy noted the way he talked to different people for later. Navy and the minotaur only had about one interaction, but he was probably going to follow this man into battle one day.

It was always good to figure out what a man respected and what he didn’t.

So far, from what Navy could tell, what their proctor respected was mental toughness and difficulty.

The second, was clearly something to do with a user's usefulness to the Tribe.

And the third… well… Navy had to figure out why he talked down to some of the members a certain way, but not others. His coarseness to flame and softness to Misty and Rhodney stood out in his memory as contradicting to the prior two.

The shadow kid moved back to his group and lazily laid on the ground, still completely covered in blood. “Hey… does water magic exist? I'm itchy…”

…

Team four successfully got three people to win as well. Their dud wasn’t nearly as powerful as Navy’s but they were able to squeak out a victory with their unique team of misfits. Navy whispered pointers to Torrent as they watched team five’s wind mage pull out some crazy constructs.

The team cheered as they also met the three person requirement.

Nike looked at the kids with a look of zero emotion, before finally going to the front.

Out of twenty targets, thirteen were destroyed.